Blunt-force trauma found on humpback whale that washed up in Huntington Beach

A collision with an ocean vessel may have been what killed a humpback whale that washed ashore in Huntington Beach last week, according to officials with the Pacific Marine Mammal Center.

The body of the 26-foot long, 2- to 3-year-old female was initially spotted at the site of a blue mussel farm in federal waters off the coast of Huntington Beach on the evening of Thursday, Jan. 23, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Spokesman Nick Rahaim said in a statement. It was pushed off of aquaculture equipment and eventually drifted onto the sand Saturday morning.

Biologists with NOAA’s West Coast stranding Network, Laguna Beach-based Pacific Marine Mammal Center and the Ocean Animal Response and Research Alliance in Los Angeles examined the whale. They found significant blunt-force trauma on the right side of her head that suggests she might have been hit by a boat.

Biologists examine the body of a humpback whale that washed ashore in Huntington Beach Saturday.

(Courtesy of the Pacific Marine Mammal Center and the Ocean Animal Response and Research Alliance )

Humpback whales are known for leaping from the water and crashing down on their bellies. They are found in all of the world’s oceans and are known to migrate great distances.

Crashes with boats are one of the major causes of death for humpback and many other species of whales, Pacific Marine Mammal Center officials said in a statement. Others, like entanglement in fishing equipment and pollution, are also related to human activities.

Their population dwindled by as much as 95% of historically recorded figures before a moratorium on commercial whaling went into place in 1985. That as well as their addition to the endangered species list in the 1970s have been pivotal in a steady recovery in their numbers over the decades.

It’s typically rare for whales to become stranded on dry land, but at least one other has been reported in California so far this year. The body of a gray whale appeared on Oso Flaco Beach in San Luis Obispo County on Jan. 19. And a collision with a vessel may have been what killed a young fin whale that washed ashore on Ten Mile Beach in Mendocino County in September.

Elsewhere, as many as six whales — including three humpbacks — became stranded on the south shore of Massachusetts within a six-month period. And on the other side of the Atlantic, an entire pod of 77 pilot whales washed up on a beach in Orkney off the northeastern coast of Scotland, one of the largest mass strandings recorded in decades.

Biologists collected samples from the whale found in Huntington Beach before crews cleared it from the beach. Further analysis will be performed, and researchers plan on issuing a complete report at a later date.

A young female humpback whale washed ashore in Huntington Beach last week.

(Courtesy of the Pacific Marine Mammal Center and the Ocean Animal Response and Research Alliance )